Dad's Christmas Socks

These are my dad's Christmas present socks. He is incredibly difficult to shop for so I ended up swiping some sock yarn from my mom's stash (with permission, and it has since been replaced) and making him socks. He liked the other pair I made him quite a bit so I figured it'd be a safe present.

They're my basic generic sock pattern with a cable whacked on the front. I'll have to check my stitch dictionaries later to figure out exactly where the cable came from, but my notes say it was called "rhombus". (from Harmony Cables & Arans) Because I don't like purling I did it over a stockinette background instead of purling. I've done that before and I really like the way it looks. It ends up having a more subtle look than is normal for a cable.